Fire and Ice
by Duckster's-Rave
Summary: Opposites are everywhere; fire and ice, male and female, hero and coward. With a new student starting at Casper High, a blast from Danny's future, and the Ghost Zone gone mad; it's bound to be an interesting ride! Up now: Chapter 0 - Prelouge


**Author's Note:**_**Yeah, I've kind of given up on the 13 Ghosts fan-and-crack-fics, at least for now. I've been uninspired, and basically become bored with **_**Echoes. **_**So I'm going to re-write that one, which basically means it's cancelled until I can be arsed to start again XD**_

_**Anyhoo, I'm back on the DP Phan-train, and wanted to start something else. This is set not that long after **_**Urban Jungle, **_**and is also my first DP fic. So please don't kill me for getting things wrong – you can do that when I'm more experienced : )**_

**Summary: **_**One-shot, might be a prequel (That depends if I get any reviews, hinthint)**_

_**Two very different ghost hunters, two **_**very **_**different worlds, and a warning...**_

**Disclaimer ****– I do not own Danny Phantom, however much I may want to or whine about it. Danny is firmly the property of Butch Hartman, or Sam Manson, depends whether you're on about the Phan-verse or not ;) I do, however, own Ray, Barney the Bear, and anything to do with them, so you can't sue me about them XD**

**Please enjoy, and I hope you'll be nice enough to review!**

Chapter 0 – Prologue: Second Chance at a First Impression

_CRUNCH! _An oversized green paw gouged a crater in the wall, sending a flurry of debris raining down below. Ray barely dodged the blow, ducking down to the ground just in time. A second later, she pushed herself through the rubble – literally through the mess like a ghost – and hacked out a cough. _Damn, this one's a strong son-of-a _-- It struck again, almost tearing the wall down in the process. With its paw and most of its arm temporarily stuck in the wall, Ray took the advantage to focus a blue energy blast from her hands straight at the back of its neck. The bear-like creature roared again, more in annoyance than pain, and wrenched its arm free in a shower of yet more ruined wall. As it lunged for her yet again, she crouched and quickly shot into the air, glaring at the ghost-bear.

"For the love of Johnny Depp's pants, do you not get it? I'm not lunch!" Ray cried, before shooting another blast into its eyes in an attempt to blind it, even for a short while. Unluckily, her shot missed the mark, scoring a mark down its green flank. _How the hell did I miss _that_? _Ray looked at her hands in slight worry, before dodging yet another swipe from her old pal Barney the Ghost-Bear. "Yeah, yeah, you want to eat me; a feeling that I don't exactly reciprocate," She glanced down at it for a second before returning to look down at herself. "I get the message," Another roar from the beast. "Hello? In the middle of a personal crisis,_ if you don't mind!" _Looking down at her floating self, Ray was surprised, and more than a little concerned that she could see the ruined ground beneath her. It was more than just her usual slight-transparency, and definitely a big problem. Ray sighed. "I'm fading _now_?It's just not my week, is it?" She moaned in the direction of the ghost. 'Personal crisis' pushed to the back of her mind for now, she resumed the usual farce of trying to subdue the creature before it did to the whole town what it had done to the park. It would be more accurate to say, what _had _been the park until half an hour ago, when the spectral bear creature had wreaked havoc on it. The twisted remains of the climbing frame, slides and swings now lay together in a slightly smoking heap. Ray shook her head as she jumped into the air again, trying to work out a way to coerce the creature back into the still-open portal. _I am so_ _glad I'm not gonna pick up _that _bill, _she quipped to herself, before swooping down towards the pulsating rip in reality, hovering directly in front of it in a bid to lure the bear from wrecking any more of the playground. When it swung its snarling muzzle in all directions, trying to get a fix its prey's position, Ray rolled her eyes again. Obviously, Ole Barney the Bear was not that bright. _Which pretty much explains the arm-in-the-wall thing. _She reverted to the good old technique of waving her arms and yelling "Hey, ugly!" Unoriginal, but effective. "I'm over here!" Giving her arms another frantic wave, Ray winced mentally as it squinted its tiny red eyes her way; _Damn, this thing's ugly, dumb _and _short-sighted? How the hell did it manage to find its way to Leisterton, then? _She allowed herself a small smirk as it lumbered towards her and the portal. _Okay, the next ten seconds should be a piece of proverbial cake..._Her relief was cut short as Barney suddenly decided to quit with the lumbering plod and go into a full-out grizzly-style run. "Oh, CRA-" Was all Ray could get out, before the bear slammed her into its shoulder, knocking them both through the glowing portal.

When she had regained her senses enough to look around, Ray found herself floating in mid-air, in a place that she had always wondered about; but never had the courage to go there. _The Otherworld... _The colour scheme was mostly greens, all around, the same radioactive shade. Purple doors seemed to be suspended in the air as well, in no apparent order; she floated towards one in curiosity and found that that was all they were – doors floating in the air. She didn't fancy trying the handle of any of them – she was already feeling faint, _to coin a pun, _she thought; and could literally feel herself fading with every passing second. She looked down at the white and blue copy of her normal clothes she was wearing, her eyes widening in shock as she could see even less of herself than when she was fighting the bear. _Damn, I am _going _to feel this in the morning. Ah, well – I'd better find my way back out before the portal shuts...crap. Not good. _Looking back at the way she'd come, Ray sighed again at the empty 'wall' and lack of aforementioned portal behind her. She knew she would be unable to teleport herself back home – the sheer amounts of ghost energy cancelled out _that _particular ability, not to mention the fact that she was already running on empty. An attempt to do something that energy consuming would probably kill her. "Forget my week, this has not been my _month_. Or even year, for that matter." She crossed her arms in annoyance, before setting her mind on what she now had to do – find another way back home before she faded away completely. Picking a random direction, she flew off as quickly as possible, whilst trying to conserve her energy as much as she could. _As much as I've always wanted to see this place from the inside, I've definitely got no intentions of becoming a permanent resident._

***

For Ravena Aston, to use her full name, although no one other than her mother did, her life started taking a turn for the worse the day she was knocked down by a car. It left her in a coma for two months, and had suffered from 'severe trauma' that had changed her personality. Her best friend Kaliegh-Lee, known to everyone as either Kay or Kallie, was worried about her and decided to try to search the internet and other forms of information to find a way to pull Ravena out of it. Whilst doing this, Kallie somehow stumbled onto a terrorist plot to detonate a bomb in their new shopping centre, meant to be opened by the then Prime Minister. However, when presenting the information to the local police, the teenager was disbelieved, and even ridiculed, for inventing such a far-fetched idea. Undeterred, Kallie and the few friends who did believe her decided to take matters into their own hands and stopped the plot from happening.

That was the 'official' story, the one featured in the national newspapers, the television, and on the internet. The reality was a little more strange. Instead of being sent into a true coma for those two months; the force of the car hitting her somehow managed to 'knock' Ravena out of her own body, becoming a spectre-like astral projection. It had been she who had discovered the plot, but unable to be seen by anyone other than her ex-best friend, who was jokingly rumoured to be a psychic, cajoled Kay into trying to talk the police into working out the truth. When that idea failed, Ray was on the verge of giving up and going back to the mystery of finding out what had happened to her. It was Kay's idea to 'go it alone' and stop the terrorists; but only Ray's quick thinking and unusual 'powers' had stopped her from being killed.

Coming out of the coma to realize that her friend had taken all the credit for saving the Prime Minister, and had become quite the celebrity, having been on all the chat shows and news, had not been a happy moment for Ray. She knew that it wasn't Kallie's fault – who would have believed the truth? But, despite their best efforts, they had drifted apart shortly after. Then the _real _problems began.

Eight months ago, the portals had opened all over England, maybe the whole world – rips in the fabric of this world through to the one of ghosts, and they had been coming through ever since, some like balls of green ectoplasm, others more like the bear that had become a regular nuisance. Ravena had taken it upon herself, slight cowardice included– as nobody else seemed able to do anything about them, to become a 'ghost buster' of sorts, protecting the town and the people in it from the malign spirits that kept on trying to mess with them. Nobody knew why it had happened; although most people denied the existence of the portals and ghosts, some had theories about government conspiracies, or aliens.

None of them would ever think that it was all caused by the actions of a single fifteen-year-old boy, one both known and feared by the ghosts that Ray had faced night after night; one who had changed the fate of the worlds by stumbling into something he once knew nothing about. The one who was known simply to the ghosts as 'The Halfa', current protector of the town where it all began – Amity Park, America...

***

It was cold – Danny could feel that the second he touched down on the thick blanket of snow that would have muffled his footsteps, were he heavy enough to actually make an impression upon it. The Ghost-Boy shivered, more out of habit than actual need, and tried to make something, anything out through the sheer force of the blizzard that howled around his ears and tugged on his snow-white hair. _Nothing. This stupid snow's too thick. _Yet there was something there, a presence that he could somehow feel, even if it was impossible to see through the ice. It didn't feel like it wanted to harm him, it was curious, and slightly familiar – where had he felt this before? "And why am I even here?" The boy asked himself, cocking his head to one side in confusion before trying to glance around again. The wind whipped around him relentlessly, carrying murmurs, warnings upon it. "What is it?" Danny turned around to try to face the direction of the voice, "What are you trying to tell me?" There was no actual reply, but in a flash he remembered why this place had seemed so familiar from the start – it looked exactly like a place in the Ghost Zone known as the Far Frozen, inhabited by yeti-like ghosts of the same name. He'd not been here that long ago, when he'd first learned about and trained how to use his cyrokenisis, or in simpler terms – ice powers.  
So if he was in the Far Frozen..."Where _is _everyone?"

***

After what had seemed an eternity of wandering on foot through this dream-version of the Far Frozen – Danny had decided it had to be a dream, the real Far Frozen was never this barren or windy. To prove his point, the Halfa gently floated up a few inches, only to have himself flung sideward suddenly by the blizzard, yelping as he flew without knowing how to stop or even steer where he was going. By finally gaining control of his only half-expected flight, Danny was able to make a quick crash-landing into a nearby snow dune and decided to stay half kneeling, half sitting on the ground, waiting for something to happen. _Something obviously made me come here, so why not wait for it to come to me? _As if on cue, a small silvery-blue flame, so small at first that it seemed like an illusion, appeared on the snow-covered ice in front of him. As Danny stared uncertainly at the flame, it seemed to grow bigger, becoming larger in the second that it took the Halfa to jump to his feet and hover in front of the near-inferno. The colours of the fire swirled madly, and a sense of unease built up in the pit of the Halfa's stomach. This looked familiar, but he couldn't place it, just as he had had problems recognising where he was. He suddenly noticed that he was staying in place this time; the wind and snow had come to a complete standstill and he was floating uneasily in the loud silence that now followed. In the time it had taken Danny to think about this, the fire had grown even larger, his neon green eyes widened as the colours in the centre of it suddenly grew dark, and a half-familiar voice emanated from all around him as it had dome before.

"'_Ware the fire, Phantom__..." _

Danny's forehead crinkled in confusion. He knew that voice. It took him a second to recognise the gravely, nearly monotone tones, but he was sure now. "Clockwork?" Danny ventured, amazed at how loud even a whisper sounded in the dead silence.

"Yes. It is I." A sudden glowing portal formed in the midst of the flames and the ever-changing form of the Time-ghost floated through it, the portal closing neatly behind him. Despite the sombre feeling in the air, Danny rolled his eyes and sighed. "Nice dramatics." The ghost just gave him a level stare and didn't reply to the comment, although a thin scowl crossed his lips briefly before disappearing. Clockwork was obviously not in possession of a sense of humour at that moment.

"_This is important, Phantom. I called you here-"_

"In the middle of nowhere, in the freezing cold, in the middle of the freaking night..." Danny muttered. Clockwork went on as if he hadn't heard this comment, flickering into the image of an old man and looking straight at Danny.

"_Because something is coming, something that even I cannot predict; and it worries me."_  
Danny raised an eyebrow. "And you need me _why_?"

"_Because the one thing that I am sure of is that whatever situations arise, they will be entirely in your hands. I am, after all, partially responsible for you; after altering your timeline and taking your evil self out of it."_

"I never asked you t-" The ghost-boy suddenly froze as he realized _why _the blaze looked so familiar. "This has nothing to do with _him_, right? I thought he was trapped in the Thermos, out of the timeline! You practically promised that-"

Clockwork waved his staff to silence Danny's half-hysterical rants. It was easy to understand the boy's fear of his other self, the one that had almost killed him and the people who he cared about._ "Relax. This is nothing to do with that future. It is sealed – you did that. It can never happen again, and he can never escape. I can assure you of that. This situation involves another, one who is not exactly bound by the rules of time."_  
"How's that meant to work? I thought everything – ghost and human – was affected by time!"

"_They are. But unlike with you, I am unable to change her timeline. Doing so would breach the terms of my –ah- contracts with my employers."_

"So you need me to mess with her timeline for you?"

Clockwork nodded, flickering into the form of a child again, before opening another portal, this one a bright green. Danny crossed his arms in frustration as the ghost crossed through it.

"But I don't even know what to do! I don't even know what or who this person is! How am I meant to have all the answers? I don't even know the question!" His protests faded into nothing as Clockwork's portal flickered out of existence. "Ugh." He sighed. "Now what?" For an instant, Clockwork's voice seemed to echo around as it did before.

"_Watch the flames, Danny, they will lead you there. But beware." _Danny turned around quickly to see a tongue of flame reach out towards him, flickering madly as he tried to back away, gasping in pain as he floated straight into the wall of fire. _Why didn't I see this happening when we were talking?_ He knew his ice powers were useless against this, as was most of his arsenal of spectral abilities. _Great. I'm gonna burn because of this stupid fire that I didn't even start. _"Okay!" _Thank you, Clockwork. Ya jerk._ "I'm bewaring, I'm bewaring! Now get rid of them!" Danny cried, trying to backpedal in all directions simultaneously.

"_For the slightest touch..." _He was trapped, stuck in the walls of flames that came closed with each second. Danny quickly tried to turn himself intangible, mouth opening in shock as he felt the fire's burn nonetheless.

"_Can melt ice..." _The tendril of fire lightly touched Danny's chest, just above the heart. Small as it was, it's severe heat was enough to provoke a cry of pure agony from the Halfa. For what seemed forever, all he knew was the burning pain that ripped through him. He didn't notice the point where he blacked out.

***

Danny jerked awake suddenly, panting heavily as if he had run all the way from that dream version of the Ghost Zone. He flicked the sweat-slicked fringe out of his eyes and blinked, realizing that it was still the middle of the night, the light o f the streetlamps outside filtering through a chink in his curtains and casting his room in an orange glow. He took another breath to calm himself down, wondering about the weird dream's message. _And good job it _was, _I would have been a goner, _Danny thought, unconsciously putting his hand to his chest where the tongue of fire had licked him. Wincing heavily, the Halfa quickly moved his hand away from over his heart. _Huh? _He poked the spot again, and nearly gasped out loud. It _hurt. But how could a dream hurt me?_ Even more confused, Danny lifted up his pyjama shirt, staring in amazement at the angry red welt on his skin. _Guess it was more real than I thought. Weird..._ Danny would have stayed longer wondering about the strange injury, had a cold breath of blue air not escaped his lips at that moment. _I guess this can wait until later. _Danny phased into his ghostly alter-ego and dropped immediately through to the basement, where the Halfa guessed the ghost was trying to or had already broken through.

At first glance, it seemed that his suspicions were wrong, the basement and Ghost Portal were both silent . That was until Danny turned around to see a very annoyed looking bear-like ghost snarling right at him tiredly. "Woah, nice bear, _nice _bear..." Danny groped around blindly for the Fenton Thermos that he _knew _should be just behind him. "Don't eat me just yet..." However, the spectre seemed to only be able to growl at the Halfa. Looking a little more closely at it, he could see that it had already been in some sort of struggle, probably from straining to get through the portal by itself. Its flanks were scored with deep cuts and burns, oozing ectoplasmic blood as it stood there, unwilling or unable to move. _But still, it's not worth taking a cha- yes! _Danny's hand closed reassuringly around the metal of the Thermos, whipping it quickly around himself, he pulled off the lid and pressed the button to vacuum it inside. Shrugging at how easy that particular ghost had been to capture – _I didn't even need to fight it ­_– Danny placed the Thermos back on the table where he found it, only slightly curious about what had cause it so many injuries. Out of the corner of his eye, Danny thought that he saw something move. As his ghost sense hadn't gone off again, he was about to leave it and go back to bed, but then he caught words coming distinctly from the strange shadow. Willing himself invisible, Danny inched closer to the voice, brows coming together in yet more confusion – if this wasn't a ghost, then what was it?

He came eventually close enough to catch a mostly see-through silhouette-like figure floating around the basement, seemingly looking around in both wonder and fear. "Thank god I got out of there – that green was starting to drive me mad." He heard it laugh to itself. "Those ghosts _seriously _need to think about a different colour scheme. Sooooo, where am I now? A lab somewhere?" It-_she _asked, for it was clearly female from the voice, "Then that means...but how could they keep it closed?" Danny saw the figure whirl around again. "And what happened to my old pal Barney? I could have sworn he was following me...ah crap." She turned towards the direction of the Thermos, and Danny saw a flicker of shock go across her face. "That other ghost – it must have got it somehow; and that means – I've gotta get out of here!" The silhouette suddenly rocketed towards the ceiling, phasing through it seemingly without needing to make herself intangible.

The Halfa, intrigued and puzzled by this not-ghost, followed. She clearly wasn't worried about being followed, still talking loudly to herself even as she passed through the roof of the Fenton household and shot off into the streets. "So where the hell am I now?" The figure had finally stopped above the school and was now hovering about ten feet from top the roof.

"You're in a situation in which I'm gonna blast you with all I've got unless you explain who you are first." Danny said, giving up his confused feelings about this ghost, person, whatever she was. He decided to re-materialize directly behind her, keeping his eyes open for any tricks that she could pull; just in case she wasn't as harmless as she appeared. In front of him, he saw the thing flicker out of existence for just a moment, a sigh escaped her and he saw her shoulders slump. "Damn." He saw her turn around to face him. "Whatever you do, _please _don't eat me. I wouldn't even be worth the calories. Also, that would just _top _the week I've been having, so if you _do _want to swallow me whole or whatever it is you ghosts do, just do it quickly and put me out of my misery." Danny cracked a half-grin at this monologue , and immediately lowered the hand that he'd been filling with ectoplasmic energy to his side.

"Eat you?" He raised an eyebrow as he asked the question. "Do I exactly _look _like I want to eat you?"

The figure blinked glowing blue eyes at him, seeming to see Danny properly for the first time. "Uhm, I guess not, but you are a ghost – and every ghost I've seen so far either wants to eat me or beat the crap out of me. Usually in that order." She smiled at him, for an instant becoming more defined that earlier. She looked similar to a normal human, with the obvious exception that she was floating at least sixty feet in the air, and the eye and hair colours, both of which were the same bright, almost blinding blue. Immediately, she fizzed out of existence again, an almost scared look appearing on her face when she reappeared a second later.

Danny quirked an eyebrow at this sort-of ghost's disappearing antics. "Uh, no offense, but what the heck _are_ you?"

"I could ask you that same question." She seemed to appraise him, echoing the confused expression that decorated the Halfa's.

"I asked first." Danny swore he could hear the argument the –whatever-she-was- was having in her head. She shrugged after a couple of long seconds.

"I don't know. I'm a product of my own imagination, I guess."

"And that means..?"

"Like the hell I know! Just tell me this quickly – are we in the Otherworld right now?"

"The what?"

"You know – the ghost world? You _should _know, being a ghost and all that – albeit one of the nicer ones who _doesn't _want me for lunch."

"Oh, you mean the Ghost Zone? No, we're in Amity-" Danny was quickly cut off as the girl waved a hand to shut him off. She nodded once at him and smiled again.

"Thank god for that, at least I can get back home now! Well, if this works..." She threw a thankful look at Danny, before disappearing with a slight flash and popping noise. Danny just stared at the spot where the strange girl had vanished, leaving a small dancing silver-blue flame in her wake...

***

Ravena suddenly groaned in her bed, sucking in a huge breath as her consciousness swept its way back into her physical self. Immediately the pain struck her in every direction, making her breathe in sharply. "Note to self – leave the bear alone next time, people or no people. They shouldn't be doing drugs in a kid's park in the middle of the night anyway." Ray smirked slightly as she remembered the terrified faces of the doped-up teens as they scrambled away from the creature. _Probably thought it was a bad trip or something. At least it'll probably scare them off the drugs. _She groaned as she moved her arm around to rub the back of her neck. It was all very well being able to come out of your body at will, but whatever injuries you sustained on the astral self, came back to your physical self in someway or another. Why _do I still do this? It's not like I _enjoy _it or anything... _It was true. Ravena was a coward at heart, she knew it, and more than once she'd been tempted to give the whole ghost-hunter thing up. She had before – or at least tried to. The last time she had resulted in a portal opening practically in her school, and even though she still stopped it in the end, it had taken her seeing her friends getting badly hurt by the thing to prompt her into doing so. The resulting guilt-trip was still holding out, and even eight months after the whole thing started, Ray was still looking for ways that she could go and sit on the sidelines. The police? They didn't even _believe _in the existence of ghosts, let alone try to help. The army? _Because _that _is such a good idea - throw a load of bored people with guns into a ton of ghosts – that'd work. How would_ _I even prove it anyway? It's not like they can see me_. Giving up on the idea, she turned on her side to stare at the luminous face of her digital clock. 1:26 AM. _I always hated Monday mornings... _Still, that trip through the Otherworld, - or the Ghost Zone, as that humanoid ghost had called it, had given her something to think about. _Maybe I can work out a way to close the portals here...somehow..._ Ray tried to turn over in bed again, wincing at the bruises that weren't physically there, and tried to drift of into true sleep as her alarm ticked off the minutes until yet another day of hell – or as everyone else called it, school.

**Note – ****Ray is one of my more confusing characters, actually created **_**before **_**I started watching and becoming obsessed with the fandom in which she now resides. If anyone wants to check out her story (Which I can't post here because it's now a Phan-fic), then trundle on down to my FurAffinity or Deviantart websites, which are on my profile page. (Yes, I am an attention-loving art whore. Get used to it :D) Anyhoo, please tell me what you think! Should I carry on with this? Even if one person asks me to, I will – because I am that awesome (*crickets chirp*...) and this would be fun to carry on with. **

**Soooooooo, I'm gonna shut up now...**

***goes off to watch The Ultimate Enemy to lol at Dark Danny's hair for the fifteenth time* Oh, I know all the marshmallow jokes have been over-done, but it's fun, isn't it?**


End file.
